Archive for the ‘TV Series’ Category

After JJ Abrams’ new TV series premiered on January 16th, visitors to LegendsOfAlcatraz.com were presented a short puzzle. Solving this puzzle revealed a cryptic announcement for an event that would take place at N37 49.6062 W122 25.3793907 – Alcatraz Island.

The announcement [image] indicated a time of “9:14″, and the dates January 27, 28, 29. On Wednesday, more details were provided:

We now know that the event will take place Friday evening, of January 27th. “It Begins.”

Dr. Soto has arranged exclusive night-time access to the Rock for those interested in helping him solve mysteries for his new book – “Legends of Alcatraz”.

The first 302 volunteers to check in when and where we say on Friday are selected.
Don’t miss this special once-in-a-lifetime adventure!

What to bring:

A flashlight

Warm clothes

A comfortable pair of shoes

Note:

This event will last approximately 2-3 hours. Food and drink will not be permitted on the island so please eat before you come.

Parking is not provided.

If under the age of 18, you must be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian.

Valid ID required.

302 people – that’s number of guards and prisoners who ‘disappeared’ from Alcatraz in 1963.

Diego himself posted a new update to his comic shop’s tumblr, linking to an organization that re-enacts history. Could this be a hint of something we might see Friday night?

I can’t wait for them to do this again. Fort Point has a “Civil War Living History Day,” organized by the Friends of Civil War Alcatraz.

http://www.friendsofcivilwaralcatraz.org/LHD.htm

Attendees to Friday’s event will likely experience quite a memorable adventure, even if only for the visit to Alcatraz Island itself, at night. If “Diego” is indeed there, then expect more than just a simple tour of Alcatraz.

Can’t be there and want to see what happens during the event? Wikibruce will also be there!

Alcatraz Spaghetti Riot, 1950
Inmates had to find ways to communicate under the watchful eye of the prison guards. Scholars still wonder how they managed to coordinate exactly what time to stage their uprising.

Users were prompted to provide the correct answer… but how?

Looking closely at the blackboard message, there are a number of letters missing:

The GPS coordinates N37 49.6062 W122 25.3793907 point to Alcatraz Island, and some have even attempted to narrow it down to a specific location within the prison. If the precise coordinates are indeed of any importance, here’s my estimate:

(diagram courtesy alcatrazhistory.com)

Clue: Time

“9:14″ – Is this in the morning? At night? As of this posting, no further details are known, but likely more will be revealed this week through @AlcatrazLegends and the hash tag.

What we do know

Something is happening at Alcatraz at 9:14am or pm, on the 27th, 28th, or 29th. If you’re in the area, make sure to plan your trip to the island soon – Visit AlcatrazCruises.com, with ferries launching from Pier 33 regularly. Let’s hope we get some more details before Friday!

Tune in tonight on Fox at 9pm EST for the latest new episode of Alcatraz – and don’t forget to bookmark LegendsOfAlcatraz.com!

What do a dying white flower, a Ford Mustang lapel pin, and a comic book store have in common?

They’re three of a hand-full of cryptic items received by a number of media and community outlets, including Wikibruce.com, tied together only by the historic – and mysterious – prison island of Alcatraz, as portrayed in the new TV series from JJ Abrams.

Alcatraz is historically known as the “The Rock” – an island situated in San Francisco Bay converted to a maximum-security prison, touted essentially as an impenetrable, and inescapable fortress. Supposedly.

In 2007, I had the privilege of visiting the prison when the ARGFest alternate reality gaming conference took place in San Francisco. The tour was a chilling, exciting look into history, providing a glimpse at the troubling and unsettling lifestyles of those who were sentenced and trapped within its walls.

It’s not surprising that Alcatraz has greatly interested creator JJ Abrams whose TV series premiered January 16th, which explores a mystery about the island and its inhabitants. And of course, JJ with his metaphorical mystery box has once again begun a viral/transmedia campaign to help extend the show and its story beyond our television set.

On Friday the 13th, Wikibruce received this package, laid out below, containing some mysterious artifacts from Abrams’ world of “Alcatraz”. If this extended experience is planned to be anywhere as expansive as the LOST Experience, it’s a good bet there is certainly much more to come during the life of the TV show.

The Package

This package was shipped from Burbank, CA. It’s unlikely that the source of the shipment is of any significance, being primarily to hide the viral creator identity (999-999-9999 is certainly not a mistake!).

The Box…

The metal box inside the packaging had no lock, and is a brushed metal texture.

Its contents:

1. A tour brochure “Discover Alcatraz” from 2011

2. A decrepit white flower

3. Alcatraz branded key

4. A Ford Mustang lapel pin

5. Newspaper clip from SF Intelligencer, March 22 1963

6. A postcard sent by “Susie” to “Nana Feinstein”

7. A souvenir lenticular postcard

8. Torn corner of page 65 from “Inmates of Alcatraz”

9. Torn magazine page with a book review and 2012 Ford Mustang ad

The Flower…

Other reported packages have contained a still live-looking flower, but have been reported it as either a white lotus, or a daisy.

There is a yellow chrysanthemum flower connection with the film Escape From Alcatraz:

We are first exposed to this flower in the yard during the prisoner’s sole hour of recreation each week. Doc, a venerable, old felon, paints a self-portrait with a flower in his breast pocket. Upon probing by Morris, we learn that it is a metaphor for his spirit. While the warden can take away all of his rights, the one thing they cannot take away from him is his flower. As long as he has his flower, his will to live, and, to some extent, to escape, will continue. To some, this symbolizes the never-ending struggle to escape from the island. Yet, to all, it provides them with a symbol of hope that they too will not wilt under the severity of the penal system.
~source: Return to Alcatraz

The Key…

Replica of an Alcatraz cellhouse key. All packages’ keys appear to be identical.

Ford…

A Ford Mustang tri-bar lapel pin.

Ford, clearly a corporate sponsor of the show, will undoubtedly be appearing repeatedly in any Alcatraz-related content, as seen in the Mustang ads below.

The Newspaper Clip…

San Francisco Bay Intelligencer, March 22 1963. The article of interest: “The Final Lockdown” by Gretchen Juerera. This article is dated the day after Alcatraz was closed and all inmates reportedly transferred.

Reverse: teaser ad for the announcement of the 1964 Ford Mustang.

(transcripts below)

The Final Countdown

ALCATRAZ. The very name connotes solitude, fear and punishment.

Thousands of America’s worst criminals were sentenced to hard time in this notorious penitentiary; many died there, others served out the full term of their respective stays, but nobody ever escaped. It was a severe locale that offered little to no promise of hope or redemption.

Last night, however, all USP Alcatraz prisoners vacated the premises once and for all.

What was the government’s official reason for closing the facility? In a word: money. Estimates indicate that it was costing over ten dollars per day to house the typical inmate. Compare that to the three-dollar per capita cost at other federal institutions. The financial strain was becoming too exorbitant to bear; shutdown was inevitable.

“This is an immense undertaking. We are completing the transfer paperwork on 256 inmates and working to find comparable positions for all 46 of our federal employees who will be displaced by this transition. But rest assured; our relocation initiative is taking every precaution to preserve the safety of all individuals involved, especially the civilian population at large.”

So, what will become of the ominous rock jutting from our majestic bay? City planners are remaining tight-lipped on the matter, but one thing is for sure: it is indelibly seared into the landscape of our past, our present and our future.

1964 Ford Mustang teaser:

The most exciting thing on TV tonight will be a commercial

Get your first good look at next year’s most exciting new car.
The new 1964 Ford Mustang!
Tonight

Susie’s Postcard…

A postcard depicting Alcatraz Island. Other packages received different postcards, however they all had the same message from “Susie” written (individually hand-written, I might add) on the backs.

The message references the scene near the beginning of episode 1, where a young girl (who we can assume to be Susie) breaks away from her tour group, and spots the episode’s antagonist Jack Sylvane lying in a cell.

Dear Nana,Alkatraz is fun. It smells old here. I went to a part where I wasn’t supost[sic] to go and a man was sleeping in the jail cell. I screamed and mom and dad found me. The guard told the sleeping man to leave. We all went home on the ferry.

Love, Susie

Souvenir Postcard…

This postcard is a heavier stock lenticular postcard, from 2008. The two scenes, seen by pivoting the card vertically, depict Alcatraz cell block C circa 1960, and as it appears ‘today’ (2008).

No further writing is on the clean postcard.

The Inmates…

This torn corner of page 85/86 is from the book “Inmates of Alcatraz“. On the front, p65, is the mug shot of Jack Sylvane, the episode 1 antagonist. The page itself appears on-screen (src: WelcomeToAlcatraz), though slightly different in page layout. Jack’s prison ID reads:

Nancy’s Book Review…

And finally, the artifact most relevant to the online campaign, a book review by Nancy Gleinen. This is page 34, torn from a magazine named “Commerce Quantified”. Nancy reviews the book Inmates of Alcatraz, by Dr. Diego Soto. Letters throughout the article are circled, however, and when put together spell “legendsofalcatraz”

This quickly led people to LegendsOfAlcatraz.com, a landing site boldly branded for the TV series. At the time of the show’s premiere, it contained a countdown to the airing of episode 1.

Inmates of Alcatraz appears in the TV show as the book that led officer Rebecca Madsen to Diego, who she considered a specialist in Alcatraz knowledge, as she sought help to locate the criminal (and ex-Alcatraz inmate) Jack Sylvane.

With his enthralling Inmates of Alcatraz, Dr. Diego Soto goes behind the bars and unlocks the twisted lives of a population formerly lost to history.

If you want a healthy dose of murder, regret and intrigue, don’t resort to watching soap operas – head out to your local bookstore and pick up the latest entry in Soto’s already impressive oeuvre that I like to call ‘Alcatraz revisited.’ He goes beyond the usual suspects (your Capones, your Machine Gun Kellys, your Birdmen) and paints an intimate portrait of dozens of forgotten inmates, each story leaping from the page with ferocity and renewed urgency. It’s as if they’re reanimating before your very eyes!

Despite the human-centric title, the book also delves into the foreboding setting of Alcatraz Island. ‘The Rock’ has never been so jagged, menacing and craggy – every vista provides a skewed take on humanity, Soto-style. He finds a way to transform the irregular outcropping into a shiv of brilliance. It is the judge, jury and executioner in this sordid tale of amorality run akok; no matter how notable the real-life characters in this book may be, they will never overshadow the prison itself.

But don’t take my word for it – Soto’s whimsical prose speaks for itself. Here’s an excerpt from the opening chapter of Inmates:

“Everything about USP Alcatraz is larger than life; the people, the history, even the daily operations boggle the mind. For instance, the feds shipped about a million gallons of fresh water from the mainland every week. Imagine: bringing water to an island. Trip out on that.”

Trip out, indeed. Soto bites into his subject matter like a jubilant piranha, shredding all preconceptions and injecting new blood into the burgeoning subgenre of obscure historiography. He revels in every scrap of evidence, reads them like decaying tea leaves and translates the whispers of the past into thunderous declarations of the now. Suffice it to say, Inmates of Alcatraz is my Book of the Week!

Diego “Doc” Soto is also the owner of a comic book shop called “Doc’s Comics and Collectibles”, which appears a few times in the show. He’s a somewhat social author, in that he’s also set up the twitter account @SotoDoc, though hasn’t used it in months. Additionally, he set up a very minimalistic tumbr blog for his store at docscomics.tumblr.com. Inside, we find an embedded commercial for his Inmates book — watch here:

From the episodes themselves, keen-eyed observers noticed a number of easter eggs and potential leads. For example, one of JJ Abrams’ staple easter eggs is the inclusion of the name “Kelvin” in his projects – his way of dedicating his work to his grandfather who influenced him as a child. Two instances have already beenspotted.

Additionally, in episode 2 a QR code was spotted next to Jack’s new cell block’s label “AZ 2024″. As of this writing, no one’s recreated a scannable replica of the code to determine what it reads.

Viral Verdict

Having watched the 2 hour premiere, it’s clear that the package contents were intended to tease at elements of the 2 episodes’ plots – from Jack Sylvane and Ernest Cobb to the very minor role of the young girl on the prison tour. The fact that much of the box content is available today for anyone visiting the island doesn’t lead me to believe that there any additional hints or unresolved threads. I’ve even combed over every artifact with a black light, hoping to find a hidden message, somewhere, but come up blank.

The existence of the (abandoned?) twitter account, and Diego’s tumblr blog implies that transmedia- possibly ARGish- content was, and likely still is on the drawing board. However, where LOST’s campaign provided mysteries and clues from the get-go, it seems that this rabbithole package has been fully resolved, being simply a teaser for the 2 hour premiere episodes.

The show itself has interested me, however, with a healthy dose of crime action, humour, and mystery (though somewhat diluted by preview videos and detailed looks at the series plot), but it left with a decent cliffhanger, beckoning me to return and watch the next episode. My primary hope though, is that with the apparent structure of the plot dealing with returning inmates – and guards – the extended experience will provide an independent parallel plot with its own characters and real-world mysteries and events tied in to the show, akin to the extended experience provided by the creators of Heroes.

Are authors Nancy Gleinen and Gretchen Juerera just one-offs? Will we see Diego’s book “Inmates of Alcatraz” appear in full for sale on Amazon or in book stores? Will Susie and Nana make a reappearance? Will we have more of Diego’s comic-book store activities entertain us? Will we help solve an inmate mystery and track down a criminal in the real world?

Back in April, a commercial for an organization named The Mosaic Collective aired on ABC, forwarding people to themosaiccollective.com. Visitors were asked to report into a database what they saw during a very brief flash of an image on screen. The collective would then generate a mosaic of these ‘visions’ for the public.

Recently, The Mosaic Collective has begun collecting more extensive visions from people regarding their 2 minute and 17 second “Flash Forwards” – visions of their lives six months in the future, which everyone on earth experienced during the GBO (Global Blackout).

I was one of the fortunate few to meet up with the collective at Comic Con in San Diego in July, and was able to finally get my flash forward reported and off my chest. I met Mosiac Task Force Intelligence Analyst Marcie Turoff who was intrigued by my vision and asked some followup questions after my report. However, I’m uncertain if this is something I should have done, given the personal and sensitive nature of my vision. But it could end up taking one of two directions: reporting my vision ends up changing the future and I no longer have to worry about my safety, or reporting my vision has made my eventual knowledge public and inevitably leads to that very future and the danger I will soon be faced with.

Judge for yourself. The Mosaic Collective has published my report via their Youtube account. I truly hope this changes things.

The Mosaic Collective is “dedicated to connecting the world one experience at a time.” The GBO wreaked havoc across the earth as 7 billion people blacked out simultaneously for 2 minutes and 17 seconds. Many did not survive. The rest were left dazed and confuzed, having to make sense of what just happened. The Collective aims to unite humanity with their efforts to paint a mosaic of the future by analyzing as many flash forwards as they’re able to get a hold of.

Mosaic’s general approach is an interesting one; in one way they’re offering the public a service – an international clearinghouse to find corroborating information for FlashForwards. At the same time, they’re building a database that could potentially create a a vivid portrait of our collective future – and possibly explain whatever could be behind the GBO [Global Blackout] itself. It’s not quite open source, but it’s close, and seeing the Bureau embrace a more “web 2.0” approach speaks well of Wedeck’s instincts.

Something is believed to be scheduled to happen at JoinTheMosaic.com on August 16th. Keep watch!

Flash Forward is a new ABC TV series slated to premiere September 24th.

August 5th, primetime, Fox launches a new viral. Reports are popping up all around the blog-o-sphere that hidden within commercials during shows including So You Think You Can Dance and Hell’s Kitchen was this very short teaser commercial:

Simple, really. A caduceus, with a cane as the centerpiece. The teaser quotes the website SnakesOnACane.com. This website contains the same basic information, with one change, however: There is a countdown timer (staple of ARG/Viral hype!) counting down to September 21, 2009, 8pm (local time).

The leading theory about this teaser is that it is in fact the beginning of a promotion for the season premiere of the hit Fox TV drama House, M.D., of which I am a huge fan.

Well, looking quite a while back, on the ARG Netcast episode 24 from May 13 2007, the panelists were asked for what property they would love to see an ARG created. This happened to be an episode I was present for as a panelist, and after contemplating the question for some time, I was obliged to answer House!

Have TPTB at Fox heard my cry for a House ARG?

Doubtful. Will this turn out to be the next great TV ARG? It’s hard to say right now, but my guess is – No. Like the witty doctor House once said, “…like the philosopher Jagger once said, ‘You can’t always get what you want.’” Unfortunately. While I’d love to see a House ARG, I don’t think the show is necessarily all that conducive to an ARGish experience, though I could be wrong (I hope I’m wrong!). But for now I believe this may just be another viral campaign to drum up interest and press.

It is, however, working. And I for one, am excited to see what will be pulled from this little hat.

Jericho was a relatively short-lived (2 season) TV show, a cult hit from CBS which underwent a controversial period of cancellation after its first season due to poor ratings. After a convincing peanut-filled campaign from its fan community to revive the show, CBS appeased them by giving the closure in its second season.

CBS had even partnered with Mstrmnd in 2007 to create an ARG named “Tom Tooman” to run parallel with the TV show.

Well, the Jericho fan community still lives. A grassroots team is now working on another Jericho experience, and they’re looking for someone to help. You can read the announcement from redsox1986 on the Universal HD forum (posted Jan.17).

Now, with Jericho now being aired Sunday nights on the CW, strange things are afoot. The CW has been putting different morse code into their commercials than originally aired. A fan has begun tracking the recent turn of events, and The CW episode commercials can be reviewed here.

Below is a fan-made video compilation overview of the entire Jericho/ARG situation…

Is there more to this CW revival of the Jericho series?

A few days ago, IF Magazine reported an interview with John Turteltaub, who revealed a big announcement for Jericho fans:

“We’re developing a feature for JERICHO,” says Turteltaub. “It would not require you to have seen the TV show, but it get into life after an event like this on a national scale. It would be the bigger, full on American version of what’s going on beyond the town in Jericho.”

Take that as you may, but with The CW taking on the Jericho series, it’s now being hailed as “the TV show that won’t die”.

Early this morning, November 19 2008, recruits of the Dharma Initiative were sent an email from Hans Van Eeghan with some disheartening news. Here you can read it for yourself, and make of it what you will. (emphasis added)

Namaste.

I am pleased to announce that registered recruits can now log in and download your personalized Volunteer Assessment Dossier outlining your full test results as well as your position within the Dharma Initiative.

I want to personally congratulate you on behalf of everyone at the Dharma Initiative for your hard work and diligence during our testing process.

We hope that you are happy with your results. We certainly are. The tests were extremely challenging and the aptitude and excellence displayed far exceeded our expectations.

Now that you are in possession of your results I am sure you are asking the obvious question: what’s next?

Our plan was that together we would commence a glorious adventure: the revival of the Dharma Initiative using the myriad talents of all our amazing new recruits. We imagined not just fulfilling long abandoned goals but taking the Dharma Initiative to a new level of greatness as an organization promoting the peaceful social and technological advancement of all humankind.

Then the financial crisis struck.

Sadly, our benefactors were not immune to this crisis. In fact, unconfirmed reports suggest that much of the money designated for the work of the new Dharma Initiative was tied up in highly leveraged mortgage derivatives. This, however, cannot be confirmed because, I am sorry to report, the principals representing the benefactors – my employers – have gone missing. Based on bills still coming into our office we believe they are somewhere in South America.

This stunning reversal of fortune has forced us to abandon our ambitious plans. In fact, absent this funding, the Dharma Initiative was forced to make the only sensible decision we had available: we sold the Dharma Initiative to the television show LOST.

While this might strike some of you as a shock, the reason for this was not simply that they were the only bidder. As the only remaining Dharma Initiative employee who had not fled the country, I felt that at the very least the show would be able to keep the spirit of the Dharma Initiative alive and in the public consciousness until such time as a reversal of the reversal of our economic fortunes occurs.

It is with a heavy heart that I must bid you farewell. Despite my fervent commitment to the mission of the Dharma Initiative, the realities of a broken marriage, heavy casino debt and some unfounded police charges have required that I change my present circumstances. It is with great excitement that I can inform you of my pending senior sales management job at a large multi-brand auto dealership in Dubai. I have enjoyed our brief association more than I can ever express, and if you are ever in the Middle East and need a car, please e-mail me for a special “Dharma rate”.

In the meantime, you will hear shortly from LOST showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse. They will explain to you their future plans for the Dharma Initiative and how these plans might affect you.

Thank you again, personally, for your unflagging commitment and support. I hope our paths will one day cross again. In the meantime may the spirit of the island guide you.

Namaste.

Hans Van Eeghen
Head of Recruiting
The Dharma Initiative

Could this be spelling the end of DharmaWantsYou.com as an extended reality component of LOST? Or is this ‘all part of the plan’…?

Watch for Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse to address the community shortly, as I’m sure they’ll have some answers.

As a parting gift, however, be sure to log back into DharmaWantsYou.com and download your personalized Dossier certificate, indicating your position within the Dharma Initiative. What’s your role in the Initiative?

And tune in to ABC (or CTV in Canada) in January when Lost’s new season begins.

UPDATE: Hidden in the HTML source code of the email is the string “DSAqandaatgmaildotcom” – or: DSAqanda@gmail.com

If you email that address, you’ll receive an autoresponse about sending questions to the creators of lost (“DSA Q & A”).

Dharma Special Access with Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse.

Got a question for the creators of LOST? Submit your question along with your name and hometown, and if selected, Damon and Carlton will answer it in a DSA announcement… that is, if you haven’t been a bad Black Swan.

DharmaWantsYou.com updated tonight with the 5th task for its recruits, and a new video message.

Each task has had a relatively hidden ‘cheat’ that allows the player to tweak the rules in their favour, and achieve is much higher, if not perfect score.

Tonight’s 5th task once again had a ‘clue’ hidden in the video message viewable once logged in. (though not technically a cheat, it is a hint for a difficult question)

SPOILERS BELOW—————-

(skip to the end if you just want to see the answer and not the process)

In the lower right of the video message is a small white square that flash erratically. A keen eye would notice that it’s actually morse code.

I managed to get the solve with a little bit of work, but mostly using a combination of short cuts and batch routines, as described below.

I opened the video in an editor, and exported the frames from the relevent range of the video with the morse code, but clipped to the lower right 20×20 pixels (the rest is unneeded). I sorted the resulting image file list by size (since there would be only two unique ‘images’ thus effectively grouping the ‘dotted’ images apart from the plain). This made it easy to select and batch rename all the ‘dot’ images for easy reading in sequence. Once renamed, I re-ordered the file list back to the frame order, transcribed the ‘dot’ and ‘dash’ regions of frames (dashes composed about 4 or 5 frames, where dots were 1 frame each), then ran the result through a morse translator (quicker than doing it all manually), and finally made a few letter/word spacing adjustments, and here’s the result:

Question #7/10 is always based on the same formula, the trick question for which this clue is intended.

There is another interesting point, however – the numbers in question 7 appear clickable, where none of the other questions’ numbers are. But clicking doesn’t appear to do anything.
(will update as more info comes in.)

* UPDATE:

An analysis of the flash source code has revealed the purpose of the clickable numbers in question #7, posted over at spoilerTV. The question shows 3 numbers in a sequence – consider them button 0, 1, and 2 respectively. In short, the example below explains their function:

What is the next number in the sequence?
11, 21, 1211, ______

The answer is 111221. So if you get this question you click button0, button0, button0, button1, button1, button0 (1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 1). BAM! There’s your 100% regardless how you did on the previous 6 questions.

So, there is indeed a cheat for Task #7, and the clue’s full meaning has been revealed – “The cheat is in the sequence, but the sequence is the answer.”

Join in the Lost/Dharma discussion at Unfiction (one of many online communities!)

With the airing of Fringe on the 9th, and the opening of MassiveDynamic.com, I’ve decided to open a wiki for Fringe Extended Reality specific information tracking. There already exists quite a number of general Fringe-related fan sites, wikis, and blogs, but each generally approach Fringe from the TV show perspective.

Not many have detailed online component resources, approaching the franchise from the extended reality campaign direction. Taking that into account, I’ve created fringe.wikibruce.com to help organize and track online components, how they’re connected to the TV episodes, and linking to general-Fringe-lore websites for detailed canon information.

Also, other major ARGs have completed or are winding down. Gotta keep active :)

If you haven’t seen Fringe, the pilot (and subseqent future episodes) is downloadable via Fox.com/fringe (US only) and via CTV.ca (Canada), and available on Hulu.com.

With the Fringe TV Series premiering tonight on Fox, the website everyone’s been itching to explore has finally removed its ‘under construction’ facade.

Massive Dynamic is a technology coropration that has developed a number of items in the show in various areas, including weapons testing, robotics, medical equipment and pharmaceuticals. It’s also located in Toronto, Ontario disguised as the Royal Ontario Museum.
… er… well, that’s the outer appearance they used for its office architecture in the pilot episode.

With the official airing of the Fringe pilot came a number of changes to the show’s content, including a new Massive Dynamic office facade, and some updated mysterious content, such as text on the kayak in Dunham’s dream sequence, writing on a gravestone in the same sequence, the well-known Fringe objects appearing very quickly before commercials, and much more, all hidden in the show. A new website was also discovered – www.glowingmonkeys.com – written on a poster attached to a street light outside the new MD building.